Huckabee Won’t Seek Republican Nomination

By Lisa Lerer -
May 15, 2011

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor turned cable news star, said he won’t
run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

“My answer is clear and firm: I will not seek the
Republican nomination for president,” Huckabee, now a Fox News
Channel commentator who ran for the Republican presidential
nomination in 2008, said yesterday at the close of his program.
He called it a “spiritual” choice that contradicts support he
sees in opinion polls.

“All the factors say go, but my heart says no,” said
Huckabee, who plans instead to continue his show on Fox News.

Huckabee, 55, is a favorite of socially conservative voters
who make up a key bloc in Iowa and South Carolina, important
early voting states in the party’s nominating contests. His
decision to pass on the nomination reshapes a Republican field
still forming, creating an opening for candidates with strong
socially conservative records.

“It completely changes the race,” said Rich Bond, a
former chairman of the Republican National Committee, who ran
President George H.W. Bush’s 1988 campaign in Iowa. “Removing
the Iowa frontrunner from the race is a very big deal.”

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, weighing a campaign for
president, said the Republican Party would have “benefited”
from Huckabee’s involvement in the race.

“It is unfortunate that we will not have his voice -- or
his bass guitar -- in the presidential debate,” Huntsman said
in a statement, referring to the instrument that Huckabee played
on his program with rock-and-roll star Ted Nugent before
announcing he won’t run for president.

‘Important Leader’

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a prospective
candidate, called Huckabee an “important leader” within the
party and said he planned to “work hard to win the support of
the millions” who backed Huckabee.

In a video at the close of Huckabee’s broadcast, real
estate developer Donald Trump -- who also is weighing a
presidential bid -- called him a “terrific guy.”

“But a lot of people are very happy he will not be
running,” said Trump, who hasn’t announced his own decision
about running. “Especially other candidates.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is running for
president as a Republican, called Huckabee’s decision “a
wonderful example for all Americans of someone trying to do the
right thing.”

Recent Decision

Huckabee said today on “Fox News Sunday” that until a few
days ago, he believed that he would run.

“More and more the signs were pointing that way,” he
said. “The objections were moved out of the way. I could see a
pathway to getting the money I never thought perhaps I could.
And, you know, things began to unfold.”

Still, he said, “the more that all of the external things
began to materialize, the less the internal things began to
crystallize for me.”

Huckabee said that the decision to forgo the race came
after an introspective evaluation, and that he now has a sense
of inner peace.

“Last night I laid my head on the pillow and had a very
good night’s sleep,” he said.

While he will not be making an immediate endorsement of
other candidates, Huckabee said, he does anticipate backing the
eventual Republican nominee, including former Massachusetts
Governor Mitt Romney or Trump.

Leading Contender

National polls of Republican-leaning voters had shown
Huckabee leading as a presidential candidate within his party,
typically topping lists of potential Republican challengers.

That support marked a four-year evolution for a candidate
who entered the 2008 election contest as an underdog,
registering at 1 percent in early polling. With only a skeletal
campaign operation, he focused his attention on winning over
socially conservative voters in Iowa.

Huckabee spent months traveling the state, sometimes with
action star Chuck Norris, a devout Christian beloved by the
evangelical community. In January 2008, he rode strong support
from the state’s social conservatives to win his party’s Iowa
caucuses.

Though he later lost the nomination to Arizona Senator John McCain, Huckabee parlayed his higher profile into a Fox News
Channel program, called “Huckabee,” and a syndicated radio
show.

Publicly, he showed little interest in running another
campaign. In December, he filed paperwork to build a $3 million
beach home in Walton County, Florida. He made plans to host an
Alaskan cruise in June and this month started a series of
animated children’s videos on American history. He earns about
$500,000 from Fox News in a contract that goes through 2012,
money he would have to forgo if he made a bid.

Spoke with Strategist

He spoke to Republican strategist Ed Rollins as recently as
a week ago to review his ability to win the support of
fundraisers and local activists in early primary states.

“I came back with positive answers on everything,” said
Rollins, who chaired Huckabee’s 2008 campaign. “There was no
reason for him not to run in the sense of the politics.”

Other candidates with strong records of opposing abortion
rights and gay marriage -- including Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a Tea Party favorite, and Pawlenty --
stand to benefit the most from Huckabee’s decision, said
Rollins.

“There’s always a social conservative who does well in
this campaign,” he said. “It just makes it very, very wide
open race.”

Huckabee, a native of President Bill Clinton’s hometown of
Hope, Arkansas, was elected lieutenant governor of the state in
a 1993 special election. Three years later, he replaced Jim Guy Tucker as governor after Tucker resigned in the midst of a
financial scandal. Huckabee served two terms.

State Education

As governor, he pushed through changes to the state’s
education and health insurance systems, including expanding
health insurance for children whose families didn’t qualify for
Medicaid. Angering some in his party, he raised fuel taxes to
finance a road-building program in 1999.

He also commuted the sentences of more than 1,000 convicts,
a decision that was attacked by his opponents during the 2008
presidential campaign. Those actions gained renewed attention in
2009, when a man whose sentence Huckabee commuted in 2000 killed
four police officers in Washington State.

A graduate of Ouachita Baptist University in 1976, he soon
went to work for James Robinson, a television evangelist.

Four years later, he became pastor of the Immanuel Baptist
Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and started hosting a local talk
show. He later moved to Beech Street First Baptist Church in
Texarkana and became the town’s newscaster, covering election
results, weather, and high school football games. He and his
wife, Janet, have two sons and a daughter.

Republican Candidates

Gingrich has announced his candidacy, and Pawlenty and
Romney have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission
to raise money for potential runs. Texas Congressman Ron Paul
announced his third White House bid in New Hampshire on May 13.

Other potential candidates include Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, former U.S. Senator
Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Trump and Huntsman, who stepped
down as U.S. ambassador to China at the end of April.

The lack of a clear Republican frontrunner has encouraged
others, including Bachmann and Trump, to position themselves for
potential runs. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said April 25
that he wouldn’t enter the race because he lacked an “absolute
fire in the belly” to run.

As the Republican race gears up, Obama has already opened a
2012 re-election campaign headquarters in Chicago. He raised
millions of dollars last month at events in Illinois, California
and New York.